The Accident
1071 Words
Three weeks passed.
I woke. I worked. I slept. I didn't think about Dixon's hands or his voice or the way he said “you could stay” like it was a gift instead of a threat.
I didn't think about hope anymore.
Hope was a luxury for wolves who had something to wake up for.
The night it happened, I was scrubbing pots.
Auntie Zheng had gone home. The kitchen was quiet, steam rising from the sink, my hands raw and pruned from hot water. Outside, rain lashed against the windows.
I heard the car before I saw it.
Engine roaring. Tires screaming. Then silence.
Not silence. A sound. Heavy. Wet.
Thud.
I set down my scrub brush.
They didn't come to the kitchen.
I found out the next morning.
Xiao Mei was pale, hands shaking as she set out the breakfast service. Her eyes kept darting toward the door. "Did you hear?" she whispered. "Last night. On the main road."
I stopped buttering bread. "Hear what?"
"A girl. University student. Twenty-two years old." Her voice cracked. "They found her this morning. Hit-and-run."
The bread slipped from my fingers.
The pack gathered in the main hall.
I stood at the back, against the wall. Kitchen staff weren't invited to pack meetings. But today , no one is exempted. I stayed quietly, observing.
Dixon stood at the front, face pale, jaw tight. Lily clung to his arm, her eyes red-rimmed and glistening.
"Terrible tragedy," an elder was saying. "The human authorities are investigating. But we need answers before this becomes a diplomatic incident."
"Who was driving?"
The question rippled through the crowd.
Dixon's jaw tightened further. Lily pressed closer to his side.
"We don't know yet," someone said. "The car was pack-owned, but the plates were obscured."
"There are witnesses."
The hall went quiet.
An older wolf stepped forward. Beta Chen, retired. His voice was steady.
"Two of our pack wolves were seen near the main road last night. Drinking." His eyes swept the room. "Driving erratically."
Murmurs. Accusatory glances.
Lily's face crumpled. "This is horrible. A young life, gone. Whoever did this should be held accountable."
She looked so sincere. So heartbroken.
So safe in Dixon's arm.
Then Lily's eyes found me.
Across the hall. Through the crowd. Her gaze locked onto mine, and something shifted in her expression.
Calculating.
She straightened. Released Dixon's arm. Walked toward me with slow, deliberate steps.
Everyone watched.
"Sister," she said softly. Loud enough for the front rows to hear. "Where were you last night?"
My blood turned to ice.
"I was in the kitchen. Scrubbing pots."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
Her lower lip trembled. Her eyes welled with tears.
"Oh, sister. You can tell the truth. We just want to help you."
The hall erupted.
"No. I didn't, I was in the kitchen the whole time."
"She's lying."
Lily's voice cut through my protests. She wasn't looking at me anymore. She was looking at the elders, at the pack, at Dixon.
"I didn't want to say anything. I thought maybe it was an accident. Maybe she panicked." A tear slid down her perfect cheek. "But I saw her. Last night. Driving the pack car near the main road."
Gasps. Whispers. Faces turning toward me, accusing, curious, hungry.
"That's not true. I don't even know how to drive."
"She's been acting strange since she arrived," Lily continued, voice wobbling. "Jealous. Angry. She told me once she felt the pack owed her something."
"I never said that."
"And the car. The pack car. I noticed it was gone last night, but I didn't think.." She pressed her hand to her mouth. Swallowed. "I should have said something sooner. Maybe that girl would still be alive."
The room erupted.
I looked for Dixon.
He stood frozen at the front, face unreadable. His eyes met mine, just for a second. Long enough for me to see the conflict there.
You know I didn't do this.
You know where you were last night.
You know who was really in that car.
He looked away.
Something inside me cracked.
No one defended me.
Not my mother, she stood at the edge of the crowd, face carefully blank, saying nothing.
Not my father, I didn't even see him.
Not the kitchen staff, Auntie Zheng wasn't there. Xiao Mei was crying silently in the corner, but she didn't speak.
And Dixon…
Dixon stood beside Lily with his arm around her waist.
She killed a girl, I wanted to scream. You were both drunk. You let her drive. You let her keep driving.
Why am I the one standing here?
But my voice wouldn't work. My throat had closed around the words, sharp and suffocating.
Wolfless. Worthless. Disposable.
“This is who you are, " the silence said. This is all you've ever been.”
The trial lasted three hours.
Three hours of Lily weeping convincingly. Three hours of witnesses who suddenly remembered seeing me near the garage. Three hours of elders nodding solemnly while I stood alone in the center of the hall.
"Does anyone speak for the accused?"
Silence.
"Leila Yuxan. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
The elder sighed. "The council finds the defendant guilty of manslaughter. Sentenced to fifteen years in the pack dungeons, to begin immediately."
Fifteen years.
Fifteen years of darkness. Fifteen years of silence. Fifteen years of knowing I was innocent and no one cared.
They dragged me out of the hall. Past my mother, who wouldn't look at me. Past my father, who wasn't there. Past Alpha Dixon, who stared at the floor like it held all the answers he couldn't find.
Past Lily.
She caught my wrist as the guards hauled me through the doors. Her grip was soft. Her smile was sweeter and mocking.
"Roth in hell, sister," she whispered mischievously to me. "I'll take care of Mother, Father and Dixon while you die in prison."
I saw it then.
The truth beneath her tears, her trembling lips, her perfect performance.
She wasn't afraid. She wasn't sorry.
She was relieved.
Framed, convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years at the pack dungeons.
The dungeon door slammed shut behind me.
Darkness. Cold. The smell of damp stone and old blood.
I sat on the floor and pressed my back against the wall and waited for my wolf to wake up and save me.
She never came.
- Writer
